Social media addiction is very likely real. Not, like, having a website and writing (like I do on this platform), but having a feed algorithm that spins like a slot machine to schedule dopamine hits (rewards) and keep the user on the platform. Or a notification system that lights up constantly, and when you check your notifications, usually there's nothing there, but sometimes there's a notification from someone you actually want to hear from. It's the same neurotransmitter hacking that makes slot machines work, and gambling addicts not simply people who can't control themselves, but victims of the exploitation of their particular neurology. In nature, going back to a place that rewarded you previously was good. Gambling, in the evolutionary sense, paid off in resources: food, water, sex. Social media is simply yet another case where our neurobiology hasn't kept up with our ability to engineer behavior via evolutionary useful, evolved, reward pathways.
There is a very real problem about the actors who are pushing for the current round of legislation to regulate social media companies, ostensibly for "the protection of children." There is merit to the claim that the "addiction" framing gets weaponized to justify surveillance-flavored laws. And there's a separate, sourced case that the TikTok fight in particular is about content: the ban had languished for years on pure China/data-security grounds, then picked up sudden bipartisan urgency in early 2024, right as Mitt Romney was publicly grilling Secretary of State Antony Blinken about why pro-Israel messaging was losing on social media, Marco Rubio was accusing the app of being used to "downplay Hamas terrorism," and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi told the Wall Street Journal that Oct. 7 was what moved him to support it. The bill passed the House 352–65 weeks later, folded into a foreign aid package that included Israel funding. Maybe that's coincidence. It doesn't read like one.
This is entirely the reason I've left the mainstream social media platforms myself — in an important way, they're a slot machine. And in the worst way, they're manipulation machines built to amplify whatever's good for a government facing an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.